


filler arc

by Infinitree



Series: Captain Underpants and the Confounding Chronicles of Counterpart Communication [7]
Category: Captain Underpants Series - Dav Pilkey, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017)
Genre: (although there's a ton of asterisks and quotes around friendship, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Pre-Established Friendship, either way they Know and they've talked before and now they're getting Existential)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:41:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24852523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Infinitree/pseuds/Infinitree
Summary: No one likes it when the plot is derailed for something completely unrelated.(Or, a conversation snippet between a principal and a superhero trying to figure out which is which.)
Series: Captain Underpants and the Confounding Chronicles of Counterpart Communication [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1804579
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	filler arc

**Author's Note:**

> (Originally posted on Tumblr [under the same name](https://infini-tree.tumblr.com/post/621505798075531264/fanfic-filler-arc), and part of the [Sticky Notes AU](https://infini-tree.tumblr.com/tagged/sticky-notes-au)\-- basically my own take on the whole 'Krupp and CU Figure Out They're Each Other' scenario. All you really need to know for this fic is that they've figured out a rhythm by the events of the fic, Krupp communicates through writing and CU communicates through audio via recording cassette.)
> 
> AKA: The Most Convoluted Way I’ve Written A Dialogue Scene Ever, And Admittedly The Most Fun.
> 
> Originally, I was going to draw this out but frankly I just. Don’t Want To right now, and words are easier. This is very disjointed because something possessed me in the late night to write this, so enjoy the Weird Characterization and Navel Gazing?

_What’s it like for you when you switch back?--_ And then Benjamin Krupp whited out the question mark to add-- _to me?_

It was a stupid question. This entire _scenario_ was stupid-- talking with the superhero that was living in your head but was also simultaneously _you_ in some way. Talking to him in this convoluted method. He’s pretty sure he’s spent more on cassette tapes now than at any point in his college years.

Snap. Splash. He looked to the clock. Barely a minute passed. He wasn’t even in his underwear.

_“I know you know I’m no good at these sorts of things,_ Ben.” 

He could practically hear the pout in his voice, which frankly was something he didn’t want to dwell on how said pout was in _his voice._

_Humor me. Easy to do, considering_. And on further consideration, he whited out the last part. He leaned back on his recliner tiredly. Snap.

One slightly damp face later, and he was lying on his belly slumped over the edge of his bed like some sort of gossiping teen. He was in the full Captain Underpants Getup now, his clothes-- thankfully-- were in a haphazard pile nearby.

The water in the bowl nearby rippled slightly, and he could feel how tightly Captain was holding the recorder just from how _sore_ the hand holding it was now.

He glanced to the alarm clock as he pressed play. Twenty minutes. His brows knitted together. The silence stretched for so long that he thought that maybe he just forgot to record, until a voice crackled on the speaker.

_“It’s like...”_ There were soft footfalls in the background from the other’s pacing. A part of him wanted to fast-forward to the important bits, but something stopped him. Morbid curiosity? Genuine curiosity? He couldn't exactly back down now, he's opened this can of worms and now he has to deal with the slimy, squirming consequences.

The pacing stopped. He probably started floating. _“I dunno, it’s like... like when you stop reading a comic when you’re in the middle of it,”_ Captain mumbled, voice lilting up at the end like a question. Pause. There was the quiet sound of shuffling, a discontented sigh that sounded way too-- too _Krupp-like_ to be comfortable thinking about. _“Outta sight, outta mind. It’s like... when you jam a comic in your backpack, but its still open on a page an’ stuff.”_

Leave it to him to bring it back to comics. He didn’t know whether to roll his eyes at the analogy, or be troubled at the idea since that was what he did when he was younger. For a brief moment he recalled a time when he shoved said colorful pages down his tiny knapsack before he was caught red-handed at school, and he’ll have plenty of time to figure out the implications of his other self describing it like that later. _Much_ later.

_“And then when you take it out to read, a few pages are ripped out because you were so rough with it throughout the day, and now it’s jammed under textbooks and other papers. Does that make sense?”_

Benjamin bit down a _no,_ before he started to write again. _You’re not missing out on much._ This would be the part where he would shrug, if the recipient could actually-- you know, _see_ him. _I’m basically the filler bits to the main plot._

Snap. Splash. The sinking feeling in his gut ebbed away to his own confusion.

_“Is that what you think?”_ Captain asked. _“You’re wrong.”_

The twinge of background annoyance he usually felt flared to anger. Even if he didn’t mean anything by it, the bluntness of it didn’t sit right with him. It hit too close to home, to being chided by parents and teachers and peers like a child-- and the fact that he was a literal superhero penned up by a pair of fourth graders added insult to injury.

So much so, that he didn’t answer for the rest of the day. Went on with the rest of his weekend. But evil never rests, and isn't it funny how he encounters the accursed sound of snapping at the worst of times?

Before he knew it, he's in front of his bathroom mirror in his other self’s Getup, and the pain catches up with him first than the usual confusion. There’s a little bandage over his cheek that had some cartoon character he didn’t recognize on it and burn cream _all_ over him. 

Honestly, not the worst he was left off, burns notwithstanding. His gaze lowered and on the vanity was the tape recorder. There was a sticky note on it with blocky ball-on-stick handwriting that scrawled out _B EN,_ almost accusingly.

_“I mean, you were here first. As it stands,_ I’m _the filler.”_

That didn’t sit right with Benjamin, but the recording continued.

_“You literally tried to stuff this conversation away!”_ And _there_ was the frustrated Krupp-tone, right near the end and just as unsettling to hear. _“You got to grow, and got character development. I'm just--”_ There was a moment of tense silence before there was the sound of shuffling. _“-- If you can’t tell, I’m gesturing to all of me.”_

_Hoo boy,_ it was going to be one of _those_ conversations.

_I didn’t get_ good _character development,_ he wrote down after getting dressed.

Snap, splash. Five minutes. He wasn’t wearing his pants. Figures.

_“Still.”_

_Maybe we’re_ \-- and Benjamin whited that out-- _you’re_ \-- another white out-- _I’m wrong--_ And the entire sentence is in the trash bin. He wrote on another sticky note.

_So we’re each other’s filler issues, but hey, sometimes those are good. And sometimes those issues gives some sort of character development, a_ _nd sometimes the readers tolerate it, and frankly that can be enough._

Benjamin eyed his words, before frowning. He scrawled something extra on the other side.

Snap.

* * *

Captain Underpants jolted up before eyeing the note in his hands. The dread from before bubbled in his guts as he read, but this time there was something else on the note.

An arrow. Specifically one telling him to turn it over. It looked more... _haphazard_ than his other self's usual careful script. The text on the other side was more of the same rare haphazardness, with letter tails leading into the start of other ones.

_Besides, from where I’m standing, you’re getting some sort of character development. Not sure if it’s good, but that’s what you get for being stuck--_ 'to' was crossed out in favor for, _with me._

And he lets out a laugh. Not the bravado-filled one that can shake porcelain, but more of a strained, relieved one.


End file.
